Well done, Morocco and Mali! You’ve managed to get the United Nations to drop homosexuals from a worldwide resolution denouncing the unjustified slaughter of gays.

Leading Arab and African nations, these two countries succeeded in keeping a U.N. General Assembly panel from adding sexual orientation to the list of reasons why such killings would be off-limits.

Western delegations expressed disappointment in the human rights committee’s vote to remove the reference to slayings due to sexual orientation from the resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions. “The subject of this amendment — the need for prompt and thorough investigations of all killing, including those committed for … sexual orientation — exists in this resolution simply because it is a continuing cause for concern,” a British statement to the committee said.

The General Assembly passes a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings every two years. The 2008 declaration included an explicit reference to killings committed because of the victims’ sexual preferences. But this year, Morocco and Mali introduced an amendment on behalf of African and Islamic nations that called for deleting the words “sexual orientation” and replacing them with “discriminatory reasons on any basis.” That amendment narrowly passed 79-70. The resolution then was approved by the committee, which includes all 192 U.N. member states, with 165 in favor, 10 abstentions and no votes against.

And how did the United States vote? Against the original deletion of “sexual orientation.” And then they abstained from voting on the final resolution, which will be adopted in December. I guess that counts for showing disappointment? [Reuters]